Following this announcement, Checkout.com’s 4th annual MENA ecommerce report entitled `The State of Digital Commerce in MENA 2024` showed that 91% of the region’s customers have reported shopping ecommerce in the past two years. In addition, the number of individuals who shop online in MENA at least once per day has developed by 80% since 2020, with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia having a 90% increase.
At the same time, in response to evolving client demands, traders across MENA are embarking on ambitious digitisation journeys and adopting optimised payment strategies. Furthermore, as digital commerce moves beyond the early adoption phase, the focus is shifting toward fine-tuning performance and strengthening payment security as a top priority.
As the ecommerce ecosystem includes multiple stakeholders, the client, the processor, the retailer, and the networks, fraudsters have several potential access points that they can exploit. Ecommerce fraud can also take many forms, such as fraudsters and criminals leveraging stolen credit numbers to make purchases, chargeback fraud, and transaction replays. At the same time, the diverse and complex nature of ecommerce fraud also emphatises the importance of vigilance and safe practices merchants and traders need to adopt in order to avoid such incidents.
Furthermore, ecommerce fraud can damage client trust and the company’s reputation, with 33% of MENA customers saying they have been a victim of payment fraud and secure checkout representing 39% of MENA users’ priority. The region also continues to see a relatively high number of false declined transactions, with Checkout.com’s latest report showing that 23% of respondents experienced a falsely declined payment in recent months.
The report also outlines effective strategies that merchants and businesses in MENA can adopt in order to minimise payment fraud and false declines, as well as optimising customer and client trust and loyalty. Included in this list is the process of choosing a trusted partner with a regulated payments service provider (PSP) that delivers acquiring capabilities, advanced technology support, as well as comprehensive regional regulatory expertise that can significantly bolster a business’ security measures against fraud and crime. With regulated PSPs, beneficiaries will have the possibility to access acceptance services that optimise payment processes through improved messaging, routing, and retries, offering robust security and secure transactions throughout. In addition, by collaborating with a regulated PSP that delivers acquiring capabilities and advanced technology support, companies will have the possibility to benefit from a holistic approach to fraud prevention and payment safety.
Companies and businesses should also harness the benefits of embedded artificial intelligence. Minimising fraud and optimising performance in payment processing are closely combined goals that can significantly impact a business’s bottom line and client satisfaction. Currently, several merchants in the region have been benefiting from a whole new level of transaction performance with Intelligence Acceptance, as the product combines advanced AI and ML, as well as vast network data and deep payment expertise.
In addition, companies and merchants should make data work for them, aiming to increase conversion and unlock revenue through Intelligent Acceptance and achieve higher autorisation rates, reduce fraud, and enable businesses to offer an optimised client experience through Network Tokens, while keeping client data secure as well.
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